Twitter Relives Worst Mid-2000s Video Game Comics
Editor's Note: This article has been edited since its original publication to reflect a correction in ambiguous description of the Penny Arcade and Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomics.
Lost in the internet's endless march to the end of the world is an unfortunate artistic genre that permeated online video game culture in the mid-2000s: webcomics. Remember video game webcomics? Perhaps you don't because you're either too young or have undergone years of therapy to block out the memories, so here's a refresher: long before GamerGate erupted into an immense pile of s*** that would stain the internet forever, online gaming culture in the mid-2000s was flooded with incredibly, yet inexplicably popular webcomics that seemed to all touch on the same topics: the "Are Video Games Art?" debate, Jack Thompson hate, and manic pixie dream girl boobs.
These comics all seemed to feature three main characters: the protagonist, a stand-in for the author who is portrayed in the comic as a wacky genius who spontaneously combusts at the sight of a tit, his straight-man best friend who inexplicably puts up with his nonsense, and the "Girl," who, also inexplicably, hangs out with the two and sometimes dates the main character and sometimes has a miscarriage.
The major comics are names you might know; Penny Arcade and Ctrl+Alt+Del live on in internet culture for being the standard of the quintessentially early-aughts tropes, but there was also Girlz 'N' Games, Powerup Comics, Least I Could Do, and so, so many more.
On Monday, Twitter was gifted with a trip down this horrifying memory lane when @abigbagofkeys, aka "Dr. Online," posted an innocent-enough prompt for a thread: post the most mid-2000s video game webcomic you can find.
itt post the most mid-2000s video games webcomic you can find pic.twitter.com/AT7f0jvK8o
— Dr. Online (@abigbagofkeys) June 26, 2017
His example from the now defunct Girlz 'N' Games is a beautiful mélange of choice cringey video game references and webcomic standards. The way the gamer protagonists smugly distance themselves from a Christmas party; the way the characters are drawn like proto-Bitstrips; The Cake Is A Lie. It was a strong start to the thread, a strip whose embodiment of the worst aspects of mid-2000s webcomics would be difficult to top. Twitter was up to the challenge.
Naturally, there were plenty of great examples from Ctrl+Alt+Del:
There were also so, so many comics posted about women, their breasts, and how the protagonist was always an awkward but charming nice guy who just didn't have luck with the ladies.
And the other, arguably best entrants were just stabs at LOL So Random humor that failed miserably.
The entire thread is a beautiful ode to one of the darkest corners in the history of the internet and is absolutely worth checking out, just to see what sort of ridiculous s*** gamer culture accepted as humor back in the day. Still, for my money, nothing tops "Seinfeld Civilization" by Role Playing Gamer.
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Vicious
I dunno, but I did find "the B Word" comic a bit amusing to be honest. Or maybe my sense of humor must be lame judging by this guy's article…
Adam
the fact this thread is the way it is sort of proves my point about how gamergate was way too big a deal and the internet still feeling the repercussions
Nedhitis
>"long before GamerGate erupted into an immense pile of s*** that would stain the internet forever"
>implying anyone outside a few English-speaking communities give or ever gave a shit about a glorified hashtag campaign, positively or negatively
GamerGate is over, dude. And even while it lasted, it was not *that*¨big of a deal to throw the whole internet on the equation. The gaming world as we know it was mostly unchanged by its existence, and that will remain to be the case. Stop pretending it was the Holocaust of gaming just because a few nuts with an agenda, internet, a keyboard and too much free time make it seem so.
Even JonTron knew this DURING its relevance time. We would do well to do so now that it is no longer relevant, thus being easier to realize.
Next time, have people review and "greenlight" these articles before posting them. We are above NeoGAF and Kotaku levels of writing. Let us keep it that way.
DutchGamer
How does GamerGate or general gamer culture tie into this? There are plenty of awful and "cringey" webcomics, y'know. You didn't have to try and turn this into a jab or controversy, it could've just been a harmless laugh at the goofier comics of yore.
H.UNgrammar
Is this KYM very own /lol/ thread?
Cyphon
News Media be like:
Sai
Damn. I remember that whole Hax0r meme.
I wonder if that one flash video where peoples heads would explode is still around…
The Necromancer Of Memes
This article makes me realize just how lucky we are to have video game webcomics like Awkward Zombie and Double XP that are actually good.
-Kanrabat-
MISOGINY!
Swift
I gotta admit, that "bites" pun made me laugh quite a bit.